This is Deal or No Deal, where if you can count to 26, you already know how to play.

Tonight’s contestant is looking to “Max”imize his efforts in a quest to take home the “Max”imum amount of money. If the bad puns haven’t already given it away, our contestant’s name is Max; Max Reynolds, to be precise. He’s a beatboxing flight attendant and is married with three kids. One of his sons is studying mechatronic engineering at Cal State Chico University. I don’t know what that means.

Max knows about the one-bag carry-on limit, so he chooses case 23. The best part is that he doesn’t have to pay an exorbitant amount of money to bring it on board with him. We are now cleared for takeoff.

Round 1
[3] - $100,000
[11] - $200,000
[14] - $75,000
[8] - $200
[12] - $400
[4] - $300,000

Well, there’s a good block of large amounts still left on the board, but Max did hit a bit of turbulence in that round. The Banker says she’s going to send out her first offer, and it comes in the form of a tiny pack of airline peanuts carried by a Banker Babe. Max tosses the peanuts directly into the audience. The first offer is actually

BANKER'S OFFER

$8,000

Max says NO DEAL.

Five cases to open in the next round, and they’ll get opened after the break.

We’re back, and it’s time for Round 2.

Round 2
[17] - $750,000
[21] - $5,000
[25] - $75
[18] - $50,000
[19] - $50

Only three huge amounts left in play. The Banker says she’s doing Max a favour with the second offer of

BANKER'S OFFER

$33,000

Supporter time. They include Max’s friend Dave, his wife Melanie and his other friend Jack. Max says NO DEAL.

Round 3
[16] - $300
[7] - $1

Max picks case 2 next, and Howie calls a break.

Deal USA plays on with the conclusion of round 3. Max picked case 2 before the break, and that’s where we pick up from.

[2] - $25
[5] - $25,000

That was a good round. Max think the offer is about to gain some altitude. The Banker says that this is the tipping point of the game and she wants to test his beatboxing skills. Howie hands him a microphone and the Prize Wall lift to reveal the Blue Man Group. Max has to keep in tune with them as they play a rapid percussion beat, and sure enough, he does. The offer is

BANKER'S OFFER

$47,000

Max says that amount is a year’s salary. Jack wants him to move on. Max opts to use his counter offer, which is a bit odd at this point in the game. He submits an offer of

BANKER'S OFFER

$100,000

That’s a bold and unfortunately dumb move. It’s way too much for this board; anyone on this forum would tell you that. The Banker calls back quickly - never a good thing - and we’ll get her verdict after the break.

We’re back. Before the break, the Banker offered Max $47,000, and Max handed control of the game to her with a counter offer of $100,000, which statistically makes no sense. I have a feeling I know where this is going, and sure enough, I’m right. An obvious NO DEAL from the Banker.

Round 4
[6] - $10,000
[9] - $1,000
[20] - $10

Nothing but ones and zeroes in that round. Maybe that wasted counter offer actually helped Max. The new offer is

BANKER'S OFFER

$99,000

The Banker is great at throwing shade, and that offer is proof. Max and his daughter get emotional about the offer. Dave and Jack think he should go for it and Max agrees with them. He says NO DEAL, and we take another break.

We’re back. The Banker is worried about Max, and she sends down a ventilation mask for him. Ha ha.

These next two cases can make or break this game. Max’s daughter Arianna tells him to avoid case 10, but he decides to open it anyway.

Round 5
[10] - $500 - Looks like it was a good move.
[13] - $500,000 - But that one wasn’t.

Max has about a 33.3 per cent chance of walking out of the studio with $400,000 or more. Does Max have the guts to press on, or does he sell out now for

BANKER'S OFFER

$125,000

“Take it! Take it!” yells Max’s son Josiah. He then adds, “But the risk-taker in me says ‘Risk it for the biscuit.’” And that’s exactly what Max does. He says NO DEAL.

Before the next round begins, Howie mentions that the show reached out to Envision Experience, a company that provides students immersive experiences. Josiah will travel to to China and visit one of the top engineering univisities there. Arianna gets a similar experience at a top engineering university in the U.S.

Everyone is so overwhelmed by this random, Le Banquier-esque handout that Howie calls another break.

We’re back, and we’re playing one case at a time from here on in. Max’s wife says he should choose case 15 next, so he does.

Round 6
[15] - $750

Sometimes, it’s good to listen to your wife. Howie tells Melanie the offer, which is revealed to be

BANKER'S OFFER

$211,000

“THAT IS A TASTY BISCUIT!” Max exclaims. The board right now:

$.01
$5
$100
$400,000
$1,000,000

The biscuit is so tasty that Max decides to DEAL. But was that the right call? You know how we find out.

Proveout
Round 7
[22] - $.01

BANKER'S OFFER WOULD'VE BEEN

$299,000

Round 8
[26] - $100

BANKER'S OFFER WOULD'VE BEEN

$532,000

Round 9
[24] - $5

BANKER'S OFFER WOULD'VE BEEN

$767,000

Okay, that’s overly inflated, but that seems to be the norm with proveout offers these days. Plus, I think think the only reason why that amount was chosen was because of the aviation reference.

Max believes that the millski is in case 1, and he turns out to be right. The $400,000 was in case 23.

Not the world’s greatest deal, but hey, at least this episode was much more enjoyable than last week’s. Next time, a contestant shows us why you need balls to play this game. Until then, good night and good deals.

Fun Fact: $767,000 is the biggest EVER hypothetical offer on a regular $1,000,000 board.

Typical that the one time we get a non-greeedy player, this happens.

Still, he was clearly struggling early on with the offers, so he did very well making it as far as he did and winning $200k+. Without hindsight, it would've been foolish for Max to go any further given his circumstances.

What was the biscuit thing all about? Still, I'm happy this contestant played well.
Also, I would've agreed with Arianna... if it was the 2006-2009 version